Matthew 19:13-15 - A Kingdom for the Little

Turn to the Gospel of Matthew.

You have your scriptures with you this morning.

You want to grab the Bible there in the pew.

Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

That's the first book of the New Testament.

We're going through this gospel together, inspired by Matthew.

Three verses for this morning, Matthew 19, verses 13 to 15.

Matthew 19:13–15

This is God's word.

Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.

But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them.

For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

We come to your word.

We pray like newborn babies, desiring, craving the sincere milk of the word, and also acknowledging that we need the very Spirit of God to be giving us growth in the Word, understanding of the Word.

So help us, O Lord, help us, our Abba Father, as we hear your word today.

In the name of your Son.

Amen.

Children are learners.

You will often hear parents say, My child is a sponge.

What do they mean by that?

They probably don't mean my child is just so soft and squishy.

What they mean by that is my child just learns and learns.

They just soak up everything.

They're always watching and learning.

This starts at a very young age.

You hear these stories about young children who have a preference for the kind of music they heard in the house while they were in the womb.

How does that work?

I have no idea exactly how little ones learn so much from us, but they do.

Can we learn anything from them?

According to Jesus, yes.

Yes, we can.

Little ones have a lot to teach us.

And our passage for today little ones teach us about the kingdom of heaven.

The very kingdom that Jesus came proclaiming, the kingdom that Matthew writes so much about, little ones can teach us about the kingdom of heaven.

Are we willing to listen to them?

The passage here, these few verses, sometimes people will use this passage to kind of emphasize beliefs that the passage isn't really about.

There's a story I heard about Charles Spurgeon.

I tried to find the source for it this week.

I couldn't find the source.

Maybe it's not original to him, but it sounds like something he would say, so I'm going to go ahead and share it anyway.

So as I had recalled the story, Spurgeon was debating another minister on the subject of infant baptism.

Now, he was a Baptist pastor, and so he didn't think the Bible taught that you should baptize infants.

And as these two men are going to have this public debate, friendly, the moderator says, I'm going to let each of you start by giving one Bible verse just to kind of summarize your position.

And so he had the other minister go first.

And the man said, Matthew 19, 14, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for as touch is the kingdom of heaven.

Then it was Spurgeon's turn.

And Spurgeon said, Job 1.1, there was a man from the land of Uz whose name was Job.

And the other guy said, Well, what does that have to do with baptism?

And Spurgeon said, Funny you should ask.

I was wondering the same thing about your verse.

It's not a verse about baptism or other kinds of various, you know, church, church programs per se.

In fact, it's not even primarily a passage about children, but about what we can learn from children.

And that something is very important.

The title for the message this morning is A Kingdom for the Little.

A kingdom for the little.

And I've got two points.

The first point is a subordinate point.

So it's valid, but it's there to actually support the main point.

So we'll start with the first subordinate point, and that is this: Jesus teaches us how to receive little ones.

Jesus teaches us how to receive little ones.

Verse 13, you can see the contrast between Jesus and his disciples.

Little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

When you first read this, the disciples sound kind of ornery, don't they?

Like, who let the Grinches out?

I mean, why not let the kids come?

But put yourselves in the disciples' shoes.

They've left their professions to follow Jesus.

They're on a mission from God.

The Son of God is there with them.

I mean, you could understand why they would think they need to be lovingly direct with these parents and say, look, this is Jesus.

This is not just your average parish pastor.

This is the Son of God who's come to save the world.

He's got more important things to do than shake hands and kiss babies.

But in this case, they got it wrong.

They got it completely wrong.

Jesus at times does withdraw from crowds.

At times he'll have solitary occasions of prayer.

He doesn't say yes to every single person that comes to him.

But Jesus was often on the lookout for those who were of little account in the eyes of the world.

We saw that just recently with the Canaanite woman.

Lord, even the dogs get some of the crumbs.

And Jesus says, How great is your faith?

Jesus didn't think he was above ministering to little ones.

He was eager to do it.

Some of you are part of what's been called the silent generation, those born in World War II or just before World War II.

Sadly, there's fewer of those people around.

But why the silent generation?

Well, one idea behind that descriptor is because children were to be seen and not hurt.

You can imagine dad comes home from a hard day at the factory.

He wants to read the newspaper and understand the world's affairs.

He doesn't want kids clambering all over him.

And we can understand a hard day's work and caring for children.

But we have to be very careful here because Jesus shows us a beautiful picture.

That attending to little ones, caring for them, is not the exclusive domain of stay-at-home moms while the rest of the folks go on with bigger things in the world.

No, in some sense, attentiveness to little ones is for all of us.

Notice, too, here the way that Jesus cares for them.

Verse 13, they were brought for Jesus to place his hands on them.

And then in verse 15, he does place his hands on them.

Jesus gave these little ones undistracted attention.

You could pray for 20 kids, but you can't gather up 20 kids in your arms at one time.

That's going to require individual attention and care.

That's what Jesus does here.

He was, before his public ministry, a carpenter by trade.

You can't build a table and can you can't construct a table and then hold a child at the same time.

Jesus chooses to give these children his undivided attention.

So what about us?

Are there times when you're willing to give little ones your undistracted attention?

Say, well, I can multitask.

I mean, I can scroll through news articles while I'm listening to kids drone on about their childish things.

But then you're not learning from them the way that you could be.

So not to say there's never a time to multitask.

When you're driving a car is not the time to hold a baby in your arms.

That's, and you can have good conversations while you're driving a car.

But I just kind of put the question there: are there ever times when you're not multitasking?

Are there ever times when you're willing to stoop down and consider a little one and how you might care for them and maybe what they could offer to you?

Jesus was the Son of God.

I'm sure he very well could have done other things along with receiving these little ones, but he chooses to give them the full heart of his presence for this particular period of time.

And there's a reason for that.

He wasn't just trying to be a nice guy.

He knew that little ones help show us what is required for the kingdom of heaven.

So you, the disciples, they seem to be thinking, we're proclaiming the kingdom of heaven.

We don't have time for the little ones.

And Jesus says, no, no, no.

Because we're proclaiming the kingdom of heaven, we have to take time for the little ones.

Because of what they show us.

And that brings us to the main point of the passage.

So, yes, Jesus teaches us how to receive little ones, but there's a because or a for.

And you see that in verse number 14.

Let the little children come to me for or because, and then he gives you the reason.

Let the little children come to me because they're so cute.

I just want to squeeze their chubby cheeks.

That might be true.

Not the reason he gives here.

Let the little children come to me because you know how families are.

If you make the parents upset, it ruins the whole family.

You don't have a kingdom program for the kids, they're going to leave.

Not the reason he gives right here.

He says, Let the little children come to me because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

This is the main point.

Little ones teach us how to receive the kingdom.

Little ones teach us how to receive the kingdom.

Jesus is making a comparison here.

So for those of you in the adult Sunday school class, and if you're not, why not?

You should go.

You've been talking about figures of speech.

In our passage, Jesus is making a comparison.

There's something about little ones that characterizes them that should also characterize people of God's kingdom, citizens of his kingdom.

He's not saying here that babies get a free pass into the kingdom of God, that they're somehow able to be saved no matter what, apart from anything they do later in life, or how they trust in Christ or not.

He's not saying that.

And we know that because of what the Bible so clearly says in other places.

In Psalm 51, 5, David confesses he was conceived in sin.

Ephesians 2, 3, were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest.

Romans 5 tells us all are born guilty in Adam.

So it's not that little ones are completely guiltless.

They're innocent in the sense that they haven't experienced all the trauma of the world that often adults have, but they contribute their own sinfulness.

So it's he's not saying they get a free pass here.

But what is he saying?

What should we put down from our hands and give attention to with the little ones?

What can they teach us about the kingdom of heaven?

Is he saying that we should be almost gullible?

You know, children are so trusting, they're so willing to believe what you say.

And you've got to be trusting to the point of being gullible if you're going to be in the kingdom of heaven.

I was on vacation recently with my family, and my nephew really enjoys watching baseball.

He loves baseball statistics.

I feel like he should have been born in the 1950s or something like that, the way he rattles off statistics.

But I'm talking to him one day and my little nephew, and I say, Yeah, you know, uh, this year when Aaron Judge got hurt for the New York Yankees, the Yankees called me and they said, Micah, we we need an outfielder.

Could you come and help us out, please, for a few months till Aaron Judge gets back?

And I had to tell him, look, I'm really busy at my church.

I appreciate the offer, but I can't do it.

And his eyes got really big.

And he said, Really?

And I felt bad.

I I thought he would know that I was teasing, and I felt horrible.

I mean, there's only one thing you can do right then and there.

I had to double down and say, Yeah, they that's what they did.

No, I didn't do that.

I didn't do that.

I I had to say, I no, I'm I'm teasing.

I was just joking.

And so I just wanted to think I was a funny uncle, and now he thinks I was the greatest uncle and now the meanest uncle in the whole world.

So that was total failure.

Children can be a little bit gulable.

Is that what Jesus is saying here?

No.

It's important for us to trust, yes, but the Bible tells us search the scriptures.

The Bible says, give an answer for the hope that you have, give a reason with meekness and fear.

So we're not supposed to kind of just bury our head in the sand and believe whatever some old book says.

No, we're supposed to engage our mind with the things of God.

But but what is it about children?

What's the point of comparison here?

Turn back to Matthew 18.

So you got your fingers here in Matthew 19.

We've got a clue because Jesus gives a very similar illustration just in the last chapter.

Matthew 18, verses 1 to 4.

Matthew 18:1–4

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

He called a little child and had him stand among them.

And he said, I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

It's very similar to our passage from today.

There's a comparison.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever humbles himself like this child.

We don't always think of children as humble.

They do sometimes brag about their accomplishments, but there's some kind of childlike humbling that is necessary for us if we're going to be in the kingdom.

Keep in mind, again, the context of this passage, the disciples were concerned about their status.

Who's going to be at your right hand and left hand?

We know we're going to be in the kingdom.

We just want to know how important we will be in the kingdom.

And Jesus says, No, no, no.

You've got it wrong.

With that attitude, you're in danger of not making it in the kingdom.

Pastor Duck had pointed out how children in the New Testament didn't have a lot of status.

One commentator puts it, children in Judaism were deeply cherished, but they were thought in some ways to be negligible members of society.

Their place was to learn, to listen.

They were the original silent generation.

Children, as Pastor Doug put it, they they show us our spiritual bankruptcy.

That we are nothing from one vantage point.

The scripture reading for today, the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs the kingdom of God.

Do you see yourself as helpless like that before the Lord?

If children are in some sense low on the status poll and nothing, when we recognize that, we're gonna want to cry out to God.

We're gonna see our need and lift up our hands to Him.

And here in Matthew 19, you can turn back to Matthew 19.

So are you spiritually bankrupt?

Are you as destitute as a child coming into the world?

Back in Matthew 19, we'll take a look again at this passage.

Bibi Warfare, that's a theologian from about 100 years ago, he argues that Jesus here is emphasizing the objective condition of children.

It's not so much how arrogant they feel or don't feel.

Jesus is saying, look at them.

They're of little account in the world's eyes.

Look at them.

They have nothing and they need everything.

That's you.

Whether you like it or not, that's your condition.

But the difference with kingdom citizens is we don't object.

We don't start putting pointing to our own list of accomplishments and our own works.

We agree.

We say, Yes, I am nothing.

Yes, Lord, I do need everything.

And here in Matthew 19, there's a slight difference.

Back in Matthew 18, Jesus has a child come and stand before them.

Here it says the children were brought to Jesus.

Almost even more helpless and dependent.

The word that's used here is a word that is used not always, but sometimes for very young children, even infants.

It's the word that's used as the wise men are looking for little Jesus.

In Matthew 19, our passage, it says that Jesus places his hands on the children, but doesn't give a lot of detail.

In Mark chapter 10, Mark's recording a similar story, and Mark says that Jesus took the children in his arms and placed his hands on them and blessed them.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

What kind of child would you take in your arms?

Probably not a 10-year-old.

In the Gospel of Luke, Luke also talks about presumably this same story.

And Luke uses a different word that specifically refers to infants.

Now, Matthew doesn't give us the exact ages of all of these children he's blessing, but this is probably not Jesus with the youth group.

As much as I love the youth group, I do, but Jesus here is dealing with very young ones, many of whom could have even been babies in their mother's arms.

See how that just amplifies the littleness, and then correspondingly the magnitude of the need.

You turn a teenager out on the street, they can get by for a while.

You turn a one-year-old out on the street, they're not going to make it.

Some of you that are parents may say, but I don't want my children to stay infants forever.

I want them to grow and become strong.

And don't lose the metaphor.

Jesus is not saying that every single feature of a little one should match every feature of your Christian life forever.

In the book of Hebrews, the writer there speaks of children and he scolds the people.

You should be more mature.

You shouldn't be like children.

But that's a different point that he's making.

Keep on track with what Jesus is saying here.

Are you willing to be nothing?

Are you willing to come to God as a child, naked before him, recognizing that he is all, not you?

Warfield says this the kingdom of God comes to men, they receive it like a little child.

That is to say, they bring nothing to it and have nothing to recommend them to it.

The baby on the mother's breast is the true type of the Christian in his relation to God.

Salvation is purely a gift.

He who will not humble himself and enter it as a child enters the world in utter nakedness and complete dependence shall never see it.

And then Warfield points out that Matthew, Mark, Luke, all of them that have this account, all of them follow this account of Jesus blessing the children with the story of the rich young ruler.

We'll come to that story next week.

What's going on with the rich young ruler?

He loves his possessions more than he loves God.

His possessions may well have given him quite a status in the world.

And he didn't want to let go of that.

He didn't want to become little to enter the kingdom.

They don't really need other people.

And when it comes to marriage, they're thankful to recognize that, as they thought, we sort of have control over when we divorce our wives and when we don't.

We have our wives under our thumb.

There's a little debate about how much and exactly when.

And Jesus says, no, no, no, you've got it all wrong.

It's one flesh.

You give yourself up when you're married.

You don't use that authority to domineer, but to serve and become nothing like the Son of Man did.

And the disciples are hesitant to receive that, aren't they?

If this is the case, wow, that sounds very hard.

We've got to give ourselves up in one flesh, and maybe you just shouldn't be married.

Jesus, now you're understanding what kingdom living is all about.

It's not yourself in the headlines, it's becoming little.

Eunuchs in the world of Judaism were not thought well of at all.

They weren't allowed to enter God's assembly.

And Jesus can say, be a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven?

Disciples, why would anyone want that?

No children, no legacy.

Now you're learning what kingdom living is all about.

Not you, but something greater than yourself, the kingdom of God.

It's almost as though in our passage for today, that Jesus takes this idea and just keeps stripping it down and down and down.

Jesus.

So there's only two options marriage and celibacy.

There's no mistress option, there's no friends with benefit option.

Like, wow, those are like one person for life, and giving yourself to them, that's there's gonna be many times I'm gonna need a lot of help.

Yeah.

Not engaging in sexual activity at all, that's who could live like that?

I'm gonna have to need a lot of divine help.

Many times.

Yeah, now you're getting what Canaan Living is all about.

But Jesus says, you're not there yet.

It's not sometimes or many times.

Look at these little ones.

You've got to be nothing all the time.

You've got to be willing to be like a like a baby every day, 24-7.

And when you see yourself there, you'll see how much you need the Lord.

And you'll come crying out to him.

So this this whole section of scripture is a beautiful, as Pastor Doug put it, a guard and a guide to kingdom living.

Not this, but this.

The kingdom of God is so much greater than our petty jealousy and our sense of self-importance.

The kingdom of heaven requires supernatural fuel.

We're not gonna make it there with the gasoline of self.

And there's good news because we receive it as a gift.

Philippians tells us that Jesus Christ didn't count equality with God, something to be held on to, grasped, but gave himself up and took the form of a servant.

He did that so we could be saved.

We could be saved in our helplessness, in our sin, in our littleness.

Christ came to save sinners.

So take joy in Christ.

We sang that song again today.

Jesus said, If I am weak, I should come to him.

Jesus said that if I thirst, I should come to him.

That song has a certain childlike quality to it.

I don't mean that in a negative way.

It's a very simple song, but it's good to have these rhythms of reminding ourselves, Lord, not I, but Christ in me.

Not my prestige, but your will be done.

Not my name, but the name of Jesus.

That's that's the wonder of being a kingdom citizen.

So do we have a lot to learn from little ones?

We sure do.

We sure do.

Jesus teaches us how to receive little ones because little ones teach us how to receive the kingdom.

And there's such a freedom when we give up that sort of clamoring for status and our self-reliance.

Look at how happy little ones often are.

Now, I know they often cry, but a baby in her mother's arms doesn't care if she's the president or the homecoming queen or the chair of hospitality in the church.

She's just happy to let the parent be all in all.

That that can be us.

We can just bask in the glory of God and the fullness of Christ and let him be all in all.

It's terrifyingly emptying, but it's also joyfully liberating all at the same time to recognize our littleness.

The way that we treat little ones might even reflect something of our own hearts and our own selves.

When you really want to learn from someone, you tend to give them really close attention.

When you're kind of doing other things and like kids are here, and when that's always marking your life, again, I'm not saying never, but I'm when that seems to be always marking your life, that kind of suggests, well, yeah, I can kind of pay attention to them, but I couldn't really actually learn from them.

I've got something more important that I could do.

And then if we're not careful, we can carry that attitude into other realms of our life.

We can carry that sense of self-importance that we think I'm I'm the mature one here, the little ones can learn from me, into our prayer life.

Lord, I just I want to pray for Joe.

I've been trying to talk to him.

He just, he doesn't really see the wisdom I have.

Show it to him.

Sunday school, wow, Sunday school's for the kids.

I mean, why would I go to Sunday school?

I got straight A's in English class.

I know all about figures of speech, but for those that really need it, I'm happy it can be there for them.

You see how we we, when we're not careful, we carry that sense of self-importance into not just with children, but other arenas of life, and that can come to characterize us.

Let's have it not be so, because the kingdom of God says we humble ourselves before the Lord, and the little ones have so much to show us about humbling ourselves.

As I was meditating on the passage this week, Bill Landhauser came to my mind.

I know not all of you know him, but he was a man who never walked around with his chest out.

He did walk around with his heart out, ready to serve, ready to be the lowest of the low, just to be a doorkeeper in the house of his God.

And what a wonderful model that is.

He's no longer with us, he's passed on.

But you know, we do have examples.

We have spiritual examples among us, and we've got tangible physical examples with all the little ones who are here.

Listen to these words from Paul.

Brothers, think what you were when you were called.

Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

It is because of him that you're in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, our righteousness, our holiness and redemption.

Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord.

Maybe for some of us, it would be helpful to volunteer with little ones.

Now, again, I'm not saying this passage is about how many hours a week you spend in the afterschool program.

It's about our hearts and what's going on in our hearts if we're willing to be accounted as little.

But maybe it might be helpful for some of you to go up and find Jen Ebert or Diane Anderson and say, you know what?

Over the next six months, put me on nursery duty a few times.

Not just so the parents can take a break.

I need it for my own soul to know what it's like to be a part of the kingdom of heaven.

Let's pray.

Lord God, how we thank you that the kingdom of heaven is for such as these.

Lord, please be at work in our hearts to change us, that we'd have the freedom and joy of being able to let go of the way we tightly clench on to our possessions and our time and our sense of self-importance, that we might be willing to be considered nothing.

And indeed we are nothing, but Christ is great, Christ is all in all.

Lord, give us a sense of humility before you that we would be crying out in our great need, crying out in dependence and with true trust, a living faith.

Give us this childlike spirit as we carry on conversations at lunchtime today, as we interact with people in the church this week, that we have so much to learn from one another.

And most importantly, you, God, have stooped down to rescue us through Jesus Christ.

You have drawn near to little ones and brought us to yourself.

Thank you for your kindness, O Lord.

We thank you that the Savior is indeed both strong and kind.

And though we are poor and needy, we come and we find all the resources we need and all the joy we could ever hope for.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.